The three appointments follow the expiry of the terms for Board members Kearsten James CFP®, Julie Matheson CFP® and Julian Place CFP® in November 2023.

FAAA Chair David Sharpe CFP® said: “On behalf of the FAAA Board, we are pleased to welcome Felicity, Deborah and Sheila. Each bring important skills and experience which will add to the depth of knowledge on the FAAA Board.

“I would like to sincerely thank the three departing directors.

“Julie has been on the Board for over 10 years. During this time she has continued to be a staunch advocate for the CFP program and committed to promoting the highest professional standards in the profession.

“During Kearsten’s term she has been instrumental in bringing the AFA and FPA communities together, and worked tirelessly to ensure the highest quality of governance to the Board and the organisation.

“Julian has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the FAAA Board, always focusing on members as a priority and working towards the highest education standards.

“Kearsten and Julian have also contributed enormously to the development of the hugely successful Masterclass series.

“On a personal note, it has been delight to have worked with Julie, Kearsten and Julian on the Board and their insight will be missed.”

More on the newly elected Board members:

Felicity Cooper has been the director and authorised representative of her self-licenced AFSL for over six years on the Gold Coast. With over 20 years of experience in the finance sector, Felicity is the recipient of the AFA Adviser of the Year in 2022 and a previous winner of the FPA Financial Planner AFP of the Year in 2018 as well as other numerous awards. Felicity has been involved in her local chapter for many events and recently presented at the 2023 FAAA Roadshow around the country. Felicity is passionate about financial literacy and representing advisers. Felicity holds a Master of Financial Planning and a Bachelor of Business.

Deborah Kent CFP® is the co-founder of Integra Financial Services, a boutique financial advice business located in Parramatta, Sydney. She has been a financial adviser for over 30 years and some of her many achievements include an FAAA Distinguished Service Award in 2004, AFA President, AFA NSW Director, AFA National Treasurer, Director of the AFA Foundation, President of the Western Sydney Business connection and FASEA Board Director. Deborah is passionate about helping Australians get great financial planning advice and learn about money so they can make the most of their lives and live the way they want without fear or uncertainty. She is equally, if not more, passionate about helping women succeed as advisers.

Sheila Gutierrez-Cabacungan CFP® is the Principle Financial Planner and owner of Wealth Forum, a small self-licensed practice in Sydney’s West. She is the Chair of the new Sydney Metro Community as well as having been a member of the Sydney Chapter since 2010, a Western Sydney Ambassador and a Women in Financial Planning Champion. Sheila is passionate about financial literacy and engaging with students and academics to advocate for careers in financial advice. In addition to being a CERTIFED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, Sheila is also a SMSF Specialist Adviser® and holds a Bachelor of Economics.

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Deborah Kent

The demand for retirement advice overshadows most other areas of financial advice, but the costs, complexity, and lack of adviser tools often drive advisers away. If the need to evolve and reshape how retirement advice is delivered remains unaddressed, Australians will increasingly face some of the most uncertain financial periods of their lives alone.

This will be one of the key discussion points at Australia’s premier event for SMSF professionals, the SMSF Association National Conference 2022, held in Adelaide from 20 – 22 April this year.

As the conversation around retirement advice standards grows, The SMSF Association introduces a suite of heavyweight industry spokespeople to its centrepiece symposium at the conference: Resetting retirement income advice – Building a retirement advice centred community and best practice system.

The symposium panel has recently been bolstered with the addition of Deborah Kent, past Director of the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) and former national president of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).

Louise Biti, Director of Aged Care Steps with over 20 years’ experience in financial services, an expert in the relationship between aged care and SMSFs, has now also been added to the symposium panel for the second hour.

Association CEO John Maroney said, “The wealth of industry experience shared by our headline panels this year is incredible and is setting this event up to be one of our most dynamic National Conferences to date.”

“Retirement advice has historically been a challenge to navigate for many advisers which is something we’re highly invested in addressing. It is essential that SMSFs are supported by high-quality advice, but the complexity of delivering retirement advice demands a complete restructuring of advice education, regulation, capability, and tools.

“The risk of locking out people from the financial advice system due to costs and complexity, particularly as they face the financial challenges involved in retiring, is not something we should accept. We look forward to seeing our panel unpack this challenge on day one of the conference.”

The comprehensive session will be split into two distinct discussions. The first will explore the big picture problems that retirees face, particularly in the wake of many challenging years and geopolitical events, and the advice opportunity in the sector.

The second discussion will demonstrate how intergenerational advice can be provided using the conference case study, which will enable practical application of the discussion. This session will also crucially seek to contrast early and late-stage retirement advice.

“We believe that providing a real case study contrast between early and late-stage retirement advice is going to be eye-opening for a lot of our attendees who are approaching retirement or working with clients who are in the late stage of their SMSF journey,” said Mr Maroney.

“Our panel will demonstrate how retirement advice can be provided with the entire family in mind and decode the differences between providing retirement advice to a self-funded retiree and a client who may be eligible for at least some aged pension.

“We’ve focused on maintaining a practical component to our major sessions which is going to add a lot of value to our delegates.”

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AFA President, Marc Bineham said, “The AFA welcomes the diversity and inclusion of industry, consumer, education and ethical representatives on the Board. We also welcome the appointment of Catherine Walter AM, as Chairman.”

Former AFA President and Principal and practitioner of Integra Financial Services, Deborah Kent is one of the appointments to the FASEA Board.

“The AFA believes the formation of FASEA is a key milestone in providing clarity on the specifics of professional standards and education pathways for financial advisers,” Mr Bineham said. “We believe it will help strengthen the trust and confidence in financial services that is so necessary to encourage more Australians to seek financial advice.”

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Deborah Kent

At Money Management’s Women in Financial Services Awards held last night in Sydney, Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Treasurer and immediate Past President, Deborah Kent, was recognised as the pre-eminent woman in financial services, winning the prestigious Woman of the Year Award (the Award).

In accepting the Award, Ms Kent encouraged women to put their hands up for financial services awards, leadership roles and board positions. “We see so many finalists in many awards, who have gone on to do great things,” she said. “Put yourself up for an award, because it will take you out of your comfort zone and every time you do, you become more comfortable.”

She added, “Women are now standing up and being heard. We need more women in leadership roles, we need more women on boards. Every woman can do what she wants to do, you just have to believe in yourself, step up, and step out of your comfort zone, have resilience and be who you are. Because you are all exceptional.”

Ms Kent began working in advice in 1988 in the bank aligned model. In 1996 she founded Integra Financial Services in Parramatta which has been at the forefront of leading consumer trends in fee transparency and providing fee-for-service advice. Integra was recently admitted into The Most Trusted Adviser Group, a point of distinction awarded by leading research business, the Beddoes Institute.

While building her business Deborah has been a long serving advocate for financial advice, giving back to the profession she strongly believes can make a huge difference to the lives of all Australians. She has spent 16 years on various committees within the profession including the Financial Planning Association (FPA) where she served on their Parramatta and Sydney Chapter, National Education Committee and as Chair of Continuing Education. In 2004 she was awarded the FPA’s Distinguished Service Award.

Deborah has served as NSW State Director on the board of the Authorised Representative Association (ARA). She has been a Board Member with the Western Sydney Business Connection for 11 years, serving three of those as President, the first woman to serve in this role. In 2010, while maintaining her FPA membership, she joined the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA). In 2012 she was a finalist in the AFA Female Excellence in Advice Award.

Deborah is particularly passionate about increasing the number of women in financial advice to address the existing imbalance in the profession and to provide great advice to more Australians. In 2013, with the AFA, Deborah launched AFA Inspire, an initiative that supports, nurtures, empowers and encourages women to step up to leadership roles and especially as financial advisers. Recently Deborah launched her Dare to Dream video series aimed at women giving her insights and life experiences to help give them courage to step up in their careers. She was nominated NSW State Director of the AFA in 2013 and was elected AFA National President in 2014, a two-year term that concluded this year. At recent board elections, she was elected AFA Treasurer.

Other Awards and Nominations Deborah has received in her career include:

• 1998 Money Management Highly Distinguished Award
• 2000 Sydney Woman of the Year
• 2000 Gerald Lippman Award (AXA) the first women to receive this award
• 2012 MLC Trust in Advice Award
• 2013 Finalist Women in Financial Services Awards – Industry Advocate
• 2015 Most Trusted Adviser Network – Beddoes Institute
• 2015 Finalist Women in Financial Services – Industry Advocate

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Deborah Kent

As the inaugural Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Communities of Practice Bootcamp (“Bootcamp”) kicks off, AFA National President Deborahh Kent says the Board is looking forward to around 50 practitioner members contributing to the professional body’s future activities.

State and national leaders of Genxt, Inspire, Practitioners, Leaders Forum and the AFA Foundation are coming together in Lancefield Victoria for the Bootcamp.

“The AFA has a diverse membership and the Bootcamp will embrace this as around fifty advisers come together to tell us what they want from being a member of the AFA, and then go about building the solutions over the two days. The AFA has always provided the best member engagement for financial advisers and this is the next step in taking it to even higher levels,” said Ms Kent. “This is the most exciting member initiative ever launched by a financial services association.”

In referring to the possibility of an EGM being called by 5% of the voting members of the AFA, Ms Kent said that the Board doesn’t believe the Constitutional Change being sought is appropriate for a Professional Body.

“If we receive a request supported by the statutory number of members required to call an EGM then naturally we will facilitate that request.”

“As we have throughout the last four years since the reform of life insurance was put on the table in 2012, we continue to listen to our member’s concerns. But, as Directors with a statutory obligation to act in the best interests of the association, we do not support the motion that they wish to bring as it will diminish the political advocacy position of the AFA. Government will not negotiate with us if we have to take each and any proposal to a general meeting of the members – a process that takes weeks. Government would proceed without the AFA’s input,” Ms Kent explained.

“What is vitally important is that the AFA continue to be a highly respected advocate for the value of financial advice. So, we are getting on with what needs to be done including the community of practice Bootcamp.”

The Bootcamp agenda will provide training and development for the 52 participants as leaders of voluntary committees that share a common interest.

At the conclusion of the Bootcamp each state will have built an eighteen-month engagement strategy that incorporates the areas of policy influence, community, quality advice and industry leadership.

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Brad Fox

Prompted by its 60% growth in membership, the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has launched several key initiatives to unite members, share experiences and influence the future of the profession.

These initiatives include the AFA Community of Practice Engagement Bootcamp (“Bootcamp”), adviser informed working groups on Professional Standards, Policy and Advocacy, and Life Insurance Quality Advice, as well as a Financial Literacy Committee.

AFA President Deborah Kent says these initiatives developed over the past three months and now in progress, will ensure the AFA remains the most member-engaged professional body in financial services.

“These actions represent the most significant developments in over a decade with respect to member engagement, collaborative decision making and grassroots energy from our membership,” says Ms Kent.

“These initiatives will drive the policy, professionalism and member engagement activities of the AFA for years to come.”

Next week approximately 50 practitioner members of the AFA will participate in the AFA Bootcamp, a leadership training and planning symposium conducted over two days to build the engagement strategy for AFA members for the next 18 months.

With the majority of attendees at the Bootcamp being practicing financial advisers, the AFA has ensured that the pressure points being felt by advisers at the coal face of providing life-changing financial advice will be pivotal in the planning and development of future professional development and networking activities. National and State leaders of the AFA’s five key communities of practice: Genxt, Inspire, Leaders Forum, Practitioners and the AFA Foundation are also included in this group.

AFA CEO Brad Fox says Bootcamp is a practical demonstration of the Adaptive Change message the AFA shared at the recent National Practitioner Roadshow that attracted record speaker ratings from the more than 1,600 delegates.

“Adaptive change is a framework that recognises the paradigm for providing financial advice has changed through legislative, political, societal, economic and technological forces,” says Fox.

“It shows that developing the solutions for the future must come from the real world experiences and experimentation of today’s advisers. As an advice community we need to collaborate and share these experiences to speed up the evolution of existing practices to stay ahead of new competitors and community expectations.”

While recruiting for some of the committees and working groups is still being finalised, the contribution of members is an essential aspect.

“After two years of tremendous growth these initiatives will ensure that the future leaders of the AFA and our profession will have the opportunity to emerge, to participate, to grow, and to make a difference, ” says Ms Kent. “We have opened the door to more members than ever before to have an active and participatory role in determining the engagement of the AFA.”

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Deborah Kent

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) is calling on members to reject a call from an adviser, via the Life Insurance Customer Group (LICG), for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to pass a special resolution to change the AFA Constitution.

“The proposed change would mean the AFA Board would not be able to form any policy position, or negotiate any policy position with Government, other associations or consumer interest groups, without calling a General Meeting and conducting a member vote,” said AFA President Deborah Kent. “This is a critical time in the profession’s development. AFA Members need representation at the decision maker’s tables. This change to the constitution would reduce and possibly remove the AFA’s relevance as a voice.”

The proposed constitutional change appears to have been motivated by the adviser’s perception that the AFA did not adequately consult members on the Life Insurance Framework (LIF). Ms Kent said this perception is misguided, as the AFA consulted extensively with members on the issue, including:

• Providing multiple opportunities for member submissions to the Life Insurance and Advice Working Group (LIAWG)
• Calling for comments and input from members on multiple AFA submissions on life insurance reform
• Conducting LIF round tables across the country
• Meetings with the LICG
• Hosting LIF webinars to seek input and encourage discussion
• Forming a Member Life Insurance Working Group
• Conducting a Life Insurance Transition roadshow attended by 1,000 advisers, 96% of whom reported feeling more confident about their future after attending
• Encouraging open and frank discussion at the 2015 AGM

Ms Kent said that the proposed constitutional change would not reverse the Life Insurance Framework (LIF), which has the support of both the Government and the Opposition.

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Deborah Kent

With over 30 years’ experience as a Financial Adviser, Deborah Kent of Integra Financial Services, has faced many challenges and disruptions to be where she is today at the top of her field.

Deborah has now released an exclusive 6-part short video series designed to inspire women in and outside of financial services with their careers, lives and businesses. inspire women in and outside of financial services with their careers, lives and businesses. support women in financial services with their careers, lives and businesses; as she shares her personal insights and tips on a range of topics.

This Dare to Dream series will provide:

• Mentoring – taking old school methods and delivering them via video to be delivered in a modern day way on digital media
• Education – tips and traps on things that have worked from experience but also the ongoing importance of learning.
• Interaction – through Deb’s various social media channels this will give her the opportunity to reach a broader audience, listen to the issues at hand and shine the spotlight on the causes and concerns that are important for women.

“My motivation to do this series was to not only share some of my experiences and learnings but also shine the spotlight on some of the issues women are confronted with and help them to take their next step.” stated Deborah Kent, Director of Integra Financial Services. “I’m excited to share my story with everyone.”

With time a restriction for everyone working in this industry it is important to provide a resource that will deliver answers and tips, delivered by one of the industry’s top professionals, addressing many of the issues that we are all experiencing.

“I believe in giving back.” Says Deborah, “My advice is if you’re a woman in financial services and have a desire to get to where you want to go, then don’t miss out on the next episode.”

Integra Practice Manager Andrew Brooks, said “The first video on ‘Resilience’ has only been available for a brief time and we’ve already been overwhelmed by the positive global response. It has clearly resonated with women.”

This series is produced in-house by Integra Financial Services with concept and content development by Jenny Pearse of digital media and business consulting company, Jenesis Consulting.

The official series page can be accessed via the Integra website with the video episodes also made available via YouTube.

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Deborah Kent

In response to the Life Insurance Framework (LIF) details released yesterday by the Government, the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) said that the refinements to the clawback provisions will be received with relief by their members.

AFA National President, Deborah Kent said that as a result of a combined representation effort by the AFA and FPA the three-year clawback period has been reduced to two years and brings greater fairness to the LIF. “In an electronic poll held at our recent National Adviser Conference in Cairns our Members indicated almost unanimously that three-year clawback was the greatest issue in the reforms. That was consistent with the view of our Board. To succeed in having this reduced to two years is a great relief for our members, particularly those that own and operate small businesses.”

The details released note that both policy fees and frequency loadings can be included in the calculation of the commission caps to apply to insurers with only government taxes to be excluded.

Importantly the arrangements will apply equally to all life insurance channels including personal advice and general advice including direct life insurance.

ASIC and industry will also be required to collaborate on more efficient and effective SOA’s including simpler disclosure of commissions.

“We would like to acknowledge the support and engagement of the many AFA members that have been instrumental in assisting politicians to understand the intricacies of the issues involved. The voice of our members has been important to the debate,” Ms Kent commented. “The next step in this journey is to continue to assist our members to adapt before the change in remuneration begins 1 July 2016. As an advice community, we will be reaching out to support advisers leading up to the implementation date.”

The AFA also expressed their thanks to the FPA who shared a common position with the AFA in the negotiations with Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Small Business, the Hon. Kelly O’Dwyer MP and also acknowledged the timely and collaborative approach taken by Ms O’Dwyer since being appointed to her position on 21 September.

“What we look forward to now is insurers delivering vital efficiencies into the advice, underwriting and claims processes to support advice business facing significantly reduced upfront income. This will be vital to ensuring that Australians can access quality personal life insurance advice from financial advisers.”

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Deborah Kent

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has welcomed the appointment of the Hon. Kelly O’Dwyer, MP as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Small Business.

Commenting on the appointment, AFA National President, Deborah Kent, said with financial services being such a significant sector of the Australian economy, Ms O’Dwyer has an important portfolio.

“Policy in the area of financial services has the opportunity to help thousands more Australians secure their own financial future,” she said. “This, together with small business as the engine room of our country, means that Ms O’Dwyer will have significant decisions to make in the Government’s response to the Financial System Inquiry, the area of professional standards for financial advice and also in regard to the future of life insurance advice.”

Ms Kent said the AFA is looking forward to the opportunity to consult the Minister.

“These issues have significant implications for the future of self-employed advisers and small business financial advice practices – two groups that ensure appropriate competition in financial services,” she said. “We also look forward to discussing how to improve the retirement outcomes of women.”

The AFA also thanked outgoing Assistant Treasurer the Hon. Josh Frydenberg for his accessibility whilst in the role. “We wish him well in his new portfolio,” Ms Kent said.

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